Wellness has been a major buzzword throughout the past decade, with many brands and businesses offering their takes on the term, and pushing out their preferred paths to optimizing all things holistic health. But no company has taken an approach quite like 28, the app that is bringing science back to the forefront of the conversation, especially when it comes to women’s health. 28 has made cycle-syncing their purpose, and improving women’s health and access to information their highest mission and top priority.
Cycle-synching has soared in popularity on social media upon gaining TikTok virality. Women became hooked on the desire to better understand their hormone imbalances, mood swings, painful periods, and more side effects of our menstrual cycle, and implement meaningful changes in their day-to-day lives in order to cycle-sync and adopt matters that work best for their individual cycles. As an online community of women began to grow and expand through shared cycle-syncing stories and experiences, 28 cofounder Brittany Hugoboom saw an innovative opportunity to develop a curated compass for cycle-synching. 28 offers its used hyper-personalized, first-of-its-kind, feminine fitness and holistic wellness experiences, uniquely powered by customized technology that caters to each user’s natural cycle. Thanks to Hugoboom, there’s now a way to truly understand what you should eat, what kind of workouts you should do, and what wellness patterns you should adapt at various stages of your cycle, in order to start feeling your best self, from the inside out.
Hugoboom took Grazia inside the story of 28, her desire to continuously improve women’s health and access to information, and the tremendous benefits of cycle-synching.
What inspired you to create a company dedicated to improving women’s health?
I’ve seen first-hand the debilitating effect hormone imbalance can have on your life as a woman. It’s an epidemic that 84% of child-bearing-age women suffer from, but hardly anyone talks about it. Most women grow up being in the dark about their own bodies. They commonly have three moments of “education.” 1. Getting your first period. “Congratulations, you’re a woman now!” 2. A brief sex-ed class. And 3. Your doctor puts you on hormonal birth control for everything under the sun, which artificially disrupts your cycle and in many cases causes damaging side effects that don’t just go away when you stop. So much of health and fitness is designed for men’s bodies and prioritizes their needs. There’s a major problem though: men have a 24-hour hormone cycle, whereas we have a 28 day (on average) cycle. There’s been so much stigma and confusion around what it means to have a cycle (it’s much more than just having a period). After hearing so many women struggle with understanding their bodies and watching them suffer through issues all stemming from hormone imbalance, I wanted to create an all-in-one solution that allowed women to take control of their bodies in a natural, healthy way.
How long did it take to establish the best/healthiest way to bring 28 to life?
We had the idea in 2019 and have been working on 28 since 2020. We bootstrapped the development until we raised seed funding in May of last year. We launched the platform in August and the app in October of ‘22.
What was the process like to develop the app, and make everything so personalized?
The app and platform was entirely custom built, and all the content was made in-house ( which was a monumental effort). The way we’re able to personalize each user’s experience is due to our proprietary technology. 28 is powered by a patent-pending algorithm that uses data modeling over large libraries of content, scientific information, and in each individual user’s case, their own unique menstrual cycle.
How can using 28 immediately help women feel more in control over their cycles?
Knowledge is power. 28 has simplified the science of the cycle and its four phases into a stunning and simplistic user interface. The entire experience was designed through the lens of three questions: 1. What’s happening to my body/emotions today. 2. Why are these things happening? 3. What can I actually do about it? By demystifying not only their entire cycle but the specific phase they’re in, it eliminates the frustration and feeling of being in the passenger seat of your own body. By taking out the guesswork of what foods you can eat and what exercise is most ideal to optimize your physique, energy, hormones, and mood, it allows the user to improve daily while passively becoming an expert on themselves with our interactive insights.
It offers a path to wellness in a less intimidating, more approachable and personalized way. 28 empowers women to take control of their health in a way that prioritizes their unique biology. There’s no calorie counting, no extreme routines. 28 is a lifestyle that celebrates the feminine, and a mindset that emphasizes balance over extremes.
Using scientifically-backed methods for Evenstar feels long-overdue, and it’s such a smart concept. What led you to realizing this was a necessity to build?
Horoscopes are incredibly popular, but a lot of women aren’t into astrology. Living in LA for years, I was commonly asked, “What’s your sign?” within moments of meeting someone. So as we were thinking about how we wanted to deliver holistic insights beyond just the body and emotions, we thought, why not create a science-based horoscope of sorts that uses the same ethereal and mystical aesthetic but provides science-based suggestions and observations into how your hormones are affecting all the key areas of your life, even your love life? The best part is when comparing the accuracy, there’s no comparison! My breasts were hurting the other day and I logged into the app and was told they may be extra sensitive because of what was happening in my current phase. My friend called me while she was doing a face mask in her luteal phase because she was trying to destress, and she logged into the app and that’s exactly what it suggested she do that day.
Brittany, what does wellness mean to you and how do you prioritize holistic health in our everyday life?
I whole-heartedly believe the best approach to health is a holistic approach. I’m 28’s #1 user and believer. I work out 5 days a week. I try to eat nutrients according to where I am in my cycle. I prioritize my hormone health as it is tied to everything, from our fertility and sex drive to our skin and weight. It’s made my days more fruitful, and I’ve never felt so in tune with my body as a woman since using 28 in my daily life.
In recent times, there has been an increased concern about the safety and privacy of women’s personal information with regards to cycle syncing apps. Could you please explain how 28 distinguishes itself from other apps in terms of its privacy policy?
Many women have valid concerns regarding the privacy and safety of their personal health data. We’re proud to have one of the strongest privacy policies in all of tech, which includes a steadfast commitment to never sell user cycle data to anyone for any reason and to never turn over user cycle data to any government or regulatory authority under any circumstance. We’ve intentionally built our algorithm to rely on data that is manually controlled by the user at any time, as opposed to leveraging more invasive methods. The only cycle data we currently collect is provided voluntarily by the user. It is also never shared with any existing or future investors. It is strictly confidential and used only for the purposes of providing a customized user experience. Any cycle data the user provides now or in the future can be changed or deleted by the user at any time. We also do not store deleted cycle data. Once the users deletes that information, it is gone forever.
TikTok has responded so well to 28 – how has this feedback been affirming that you’re disrupting the market and helping women in important ways?
Back in 2019, cycle-based fitness & wellness was pretty much unknown to the general public. When I discovered the benefits myself, I knew it was going to be the biggest health trend for women in the world. Today, there are hundreds of millions of views on TikTok about this subject. We wanted to take a more authentic approach by getting real women who were experiencing 28 for themselves to share their actual journeys, discoveries, and results. It’s been incredible to see the app go viral month after month, and so rewarding to see the countless comments and stories of women who have radically changed their lives for the better. It speaks not only to the innovative nature of the product, content, and experience, but most of all that it actually works. One woman had excruciating periods all her adult life. Since using 28, her period pain is GONE. Another who struggled with weight loss despite consistent exercise lost 15 lbs in 8 weeks after switching from intense workouts and calorie counting to 28’s approach. There are women who have tried countless topical creams and serums who have completely cleared up their skin and no longer have flare-ups by naturally restoring balance to their hormones. There are countless stories from women all over the world, and I can’t wait to read more of them.